spacepy.pycdf.zAttrList¶

class spacepy.pycdf.zAttrList(zvar)[source]¶

Object representing all the zAttributes in a zVariable.

Normally accessed as an attribute of a Var in an open CDF:

>>> epoch_attribs = cdffile['Epoch'].attrs

Appears as a dictionary: keys are attribute names, values are the value of the zEntry associated with the appropriate zVariable. Each vAttribute in a CDF may only have a single entry associated with each variable. The entry may be a string, a single numerical value, or a series of numerical values. Entries with multiple values are returned as an entire list; direct access to the individual elements is not possible.

Example: finding the first dependency of (ISTP-compliant) variable Flux:

>>> print cdffile['Flux'].attrs['DEPEND_0']

zAttributes are shared among zVariables, one zEntry allowed per zVariable. (pyCDF hides this detail.) Deleting the last zEntry for a zAttribute will delete the underlying zAttribute.

zEntries are created and destroyed by the usual dict methods on the zAttrlist:

>>> epoch_attribs['new_entry'] = [1, 2, 4] #assign a list to new zEntry
>>> del epoch_attribs['new_entry'] #delete the zEntry

The type of the zEntry is guessed from data provided. The type is chosen to match the data; subject to that constraint, it will try to match (in order):

existing zEntry corresponding to this zVar

other zEntries in this zAttribute

the type of this zVar

data-matching constraints described in CDF.new()

spacepy.pycdf.zAttrList¶

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